In certain professions and hobbies, individuals must be prepared to handle poorly lit conditions on short notice. Thus, it has become customary for many individuals to carry flashlights on a day to day or at least on a regular basis. Though advances in technology have permitted flashlights to be minimized in size, it is still often inconvenient to juggle a traditional flashlight as well as other devices that may be required by the task at hand.
Take for example the profession of law enforcement. Officers of the law must often work in the dark under dangerous conditions: a combination that has made flashlights integral to officer safety. Unfortunately, using one hand for the purpose of carrying and operating a flashlight has often times interfered with other important law enforcement tasks such as firing a gun, calling for reinforcement using a radio or telephone, setting off tear gas, operating a bike or other vehicle, etc. A device such as a lighted glove, which could permit law enforcement officials to combat poorly lit conditions without interfering in the officers' other operations would intuitively be well received by this demographic.
Lighted gloves are not new to the art. Examples of typical lighted gloves may be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,152,248, 6,592,235, 5,345,368, 5,283,722, 5,154,506, 5,124,892, 4,625,339, 5,535,105, 6,006,357, 6,892,397, 4,422,131, and D423758, all of which are hereby incorporated by reference. Among the problems with the lighted gloves existing in the art, and the most probable reason their use has not become wide spread among individuals such as police officers, is the fact that they can not be operated in a way that actually frees up hand space nor can their light sources be activated and deactivated quickly. In order to activate the light source on one of the existing lighted gloves, a user must use his non-gloved hand to find and then push the light's activation/deactivation button. This can be especially burdensome if both of the officer's hands are in gloves; bulky glove fabric makes manually turning a light on and off more difficult.
The currently disclosed pressure-activated lighted glove solves many of the problems that have plagued preexisting lighted gloves. In one exemplary embodiment, the lighted glove is activated and deactivated by applying pressure to the palm of the glove. In this exemplary embodiment, the applied pressure can be detected by a pressure sensor that has been inserted in the glove's palm. The sensor, can convert the detected pressure into a signal which is then sent to a power source for the glove's light source. Upon receiving the signal, the power source can cause the light source to be turned on or off. In some exemplary embodiments, there is one light source per glove. In other exemplary embodiments, there is more than one light source per glove. In a preferred exemplary embodiment, a pressure activated lighted glove has one light source that is located on the back side of the user's hand while the user is wearing the glove. A light source of the presently disclosed lighted glove may be an LED, but many light sources can be used in practicing the invention.
Another exemplary embodiment of a pressure activated lighted glove comprises a three way switch that works in conjunction with a pressure sensor. In a preferred embodiment, the three way switch has the following three settings: pressure activation, light on, and light off. When the switch is set to “pressure activation”, the pressure sensor can be used to turn the glove's light on and off. When the switch is set to “light on” the glove's light is activated independently of the pressure-activation pad. When the switch is set to “light off” the glove's light is deactivated and the only way to turn it on is to turn the switch to one of its other two settings. In some exemplary embodiments the pressure activated glove has a switch with more or less than three settings.